Combined Deaths from Alcohol, Drugs and Suicide Declined by 16% in 2024
New Report Highlights How Progress is at Risk Amid Federal Workforce and Funding Cuts; Special Feature on Suicide Sheds Light on Disparities
(Washington, D.C. – June 2, 2026) – The death rate from alcohol-induced, drug overdose, and suicide causes were each down significantly in the United States in 2024 for the first time since 1999 (when datasets were initially published), and provisional data for 2025 signals this positive trend has continued.
A new report from Trust for America’s Health (TFAH) explores what’s behind these recent downward trends, which demographic groups are still experiencing high rates of death from these causes, and how federal workforce and funding cuts are putting progress at risk.
Pain in the Nation 2026: The Epidemics of Alcohol, Drug, and Suicide Deaths, which examines data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and other federal sources, finds that the combined age-adjusted rate of deaths from alcohol, drugs, and suicide declined by 16 percent in 2024, building on a decrease of 4 percent in 2023. Specifically, alcohol-induced mortality declined by 4 percent, drug overdose mortality by 26 percent, and suicide mortality by 3 percent.
Most states saw improvements in their combined rates as well: 45 states and the District of Columbia had lower rates compared to 2023, four states had higher rates (Iowa, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Wyoming), and one state stayed the same (Nebraska) in 2024.
Cuts to public health workforce and funding, as well as uncertainty surrounding long-standing federal programs and grants, significantly threaten this progress. For example, the CDC’s National Center for Injury Prevention and Control (Injury Center), Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), Veterans Affairs health care staff, and 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline’s LGBTQ+ youth services all experienced cuts or eliminations, despite the critical role these programs have in reducing deaths from these causes.
“Sustaining and building on recent progress requires the federal government to invest even more in programs that reduce and prevent harm—not cut them—while also investing in the skilled workforce and modern data systems necessary to deliver and evaluate those programs effectively,” said Dr. J. Nadine Gracia, President and CEO of TFAH. “We are also seeing specific groups of people not experiencing the same progress, especially when it comes to deaths from suicide, meaning we need to do even more to build strong policies and programs that help to improve everyone’s mental health and well-being,”
The report examines the strategies, policies, and programs that have helped drive the recent decline in mortality, including:
- Creating and sustaining new federal programs and infrastructure, including prevention grants such as SAMHSA’s Garrett Lee Smith program (2004) and the CDC’s Comprehensive Suicide Prevention program (2020) and Preventing Adverse Childhood Experiences through Data to Action (2023).
- Investments in data systems, like CDC’s Overdose Data to Action and the National Violent Death Reporting System, have allowed health officials to track emerging trends by geographic, demographic, and drug type metrics to guide local, state, and national responses and to prevent overdoses and deaths in real time in communities in need.
- A growing focus on the drivers of substance misuse and poor mental health through prevention and early intervention policies, including improving social, environmental, and economic conditions; expanding resilience programs in schools; and increasing access to social and mental health services for children and families.
Pain in the Nation includes a special feature on suicide, which was the 10th leading cause of death in 2024 and the second leading cause of death for people ages 10–14, 15–24, and 25–35. Key findings related to suicide include:
- Suicide rates across nearly all racial and ethnic groups were lower in 2024, after peaks in 2022 or 2023. Despite this progress, American Indian and Alaska Native people consistently have the highest suicide rate of any race/ethnicity.
- Historically, Black youth have had relatively low suicide mortality rates compared to their peers, but rates have risen at an alarming pace in recent decades, increasing 144 percent from 2007 to 2020.
- Suicide rates are higher in rural areas compared with urban areas and have increased at a faster rate over the last two decades. The most recent data available, from 2022, show that rural areas had a suicide rate 41 percent higher than urban areas.
- While the rate of suicide deaths is unknown for LGBTQ populations, research consistently find higher rates of mental health issues, substance use, and suicidal behaviors for LGBTQ individuals compared with heterosexual individuals.
The report also calls for a sustained commitment to primary prevention programs and investments, and includes recommendations on actions the Administration, Congress and federal agencies should take, such as:
- Investing in prevention and conditions that promote health
- Spend behavioral health funds and carry out investments as directed by Congress.
- Provide robust funding for CDC’s Injury Center and maintain the vital workforce necessary to fulfill the Center’s activities.
- Support policies and programs that reduce adverse childhood experiences and the impact of trauma and promote positive childhood experiences.
- Reducing overdose risk and access to lethal means of suicide
- Support policies to reduce overdose and bloodborne infection.
- Support efforts to limit access to lethal means of suicide, such as safe storage of medications and firearms.
- Transforming the mental health and substance use prevention system
- Maintain SAMHSA’s funding and critical workforce and bolster the continuum of crisis intervention programs and supports, such as the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline.
- Restore Medicaid funding and eligibility to prevent losses in mental health and substance use healthcare.
- Promote equity in mental health, with a specialized workforce and targeted services to reduce disparities in access and outcome.
